Officials are probing how a 51-year-old highway bridge came to collapse in the Italian port city of Genoa yesterday, killing at least 26 people and injuring 16 others as it sent dozens of vehicles tumbling into a heap of concrete and twisted steel.

World's woolliest sheep contender Shaun grows fuzz on the lam

Tasmania’s ‘Shaun the Sheep’ could prove to be the world’s woolliest sheep after spending close to five years on the lam and in desperate need of a haircut.

The six-year-old merino, who appears to have never been shorn, was found on a farm in Tasmania’s Midlands, apparently after wandering across the state for much of his life.

Farmers Peter and Netty Hazell estimate Shaun the Sheep – as they have dubbed the woolly fellow in honour of his TV counterpart – is carrying more than 20kg of fleece.

“There's three or four good jumpers in there,” Ms Hazell told ABC Hobart.

"I just couldn't believe it, I just could not believe a sheep could have so much wool."

Shaun’s tags suggest the merino wandered off a farm on Tasmania’s east coast, meandering across the state for close to five years before Mr Hazell chanced upon him in scrubland on one of his property’s paddocks.

“He couldn't see very well because of the wool over his face, so I snuck up behind him and grabbed him," he said.